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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

My apologies if this has been discussed. I tried a search but didn't find it.

There is a program called Tapper that will open a MIDI file and play each note upon keypress. I'm sure there are other similar programs. This lets you vary the tempo in real time. (every time I hit a key, the software automatically plays the next note from the midi file.)

What I want to do is open a MIDI file with that program, and play it into another program like Hauptwerk for organ sounds, or maybe harpsichord, etc.

How do I pass MIDI into another program? Any good website explaining this?

The way this is commonly done is not as you describe. Typically there will be some MIDI recording and editing software. Typically this same software will also allow you to record and edit audio files too. Then after opening a MIDI files you "assign" an instrument to it, say an organ or piano or saxophone. Then you hit "play" and you can hear it. Editors will have ways to adjust the tempo, either you type in a number of beats per minute or "tap tempo" on a space bar or as you described, one note per step.

What you want is some kind of unifying editor/recorder rather than a ba-zillion little one purpose programs.

Modern recording studios are build around this kind of software but now even most home users are working this way too. Cost is anywhere from free for five figures.

I was wondering if you got Tapper set up to work with Hauptwerk? I was browsing around Hauptwerk's website and noticed that both the installation manual and the user's guide specifically mention the use of LoopBe1 as a way to connect sequencers that don't accept VST plugins, like Tapper, to Hauptwerk.

In the user's guide under "Quick Start: MIDI sequencing configuration" it lists step-by-step instructions for setting up the LoopBe driver within Hauptwerk.

It might be worth looking into if you're still wanting to use both Tapper and Hauptwerk together.

Thanks for the advice. I have not tried the loopB software but now that you explain it I think it's worth a shot.

I did confirm that the Tapper software is not designed to pass MIDI except in the most basic way. It was written as an experiment, not intended as full featured software (and it does work pretty well.)

There is a workaround - use two laptops. Run Tapper on one, an old slow one, and Hauptwerk on the other. Connect the two via MIDI cable. Should work. But I want to try your idea first.

I played with Tapper a little bit and had no problem sending the MIDI performance to another host with a instrument loaded, specifically, VSTHost with a piano VSTi loaded. Just for grins I downloaded the demo of Haupterk and was also able to get Tapper to play the MIDI file in Hauptwerk.

The only problem I had was that Hauptwerk has some complex MIDI setup depending on your keyboard/pedal configuration and Tapper only sends the data over on a single MIDI channel. As a result, I couldn't get all of the organ parts to play but since you are more familiar with Hauptwerk than I am, you might know how to set up the MIDI input better.

The fact that Tapper only sends its data out on one channel at a time might be the only issue you have with setting up the programs to work with each other. I know that Tapper has some specific functionality that you may be wanting to use but, as ChrisA alluded to, there may be a more elegant solution using a more powerful MIDI recording/editor program.

I played with Tapper a little bit and had no problem sending the MIDI performance to another host with a instrument loaded, specifically, VSTHost with a piano VSTi loaded. Just for grins I downloaded the demo of Haupterk and was also able to get Tapper to play the MIDI file in Hauptwerk.

I don't know how you did that. I downloaded LoopBone and had no luck. I used Miditizer instead of Hauptwerk because I'm low on memory. Tapper did see loop as a MIDI device, but didn't seem to send anything out. I emailed the author and he had not put this function in it.

Today this class of audio and midi software all use a common standardized architecture so that is play well together. VST and AU are the names of types of standard components that can plug into midi and recording software.

No offence meant but it would appear that you are complaining about telephone operators not speaking the same language and therefore notable to route a long distance call for you -- in an age where everyone direct dials.

What you want to do is very easy if you were working inside any of the modern frameworks such as Protools, Logic, Cubase,.... Conceptually they all work the same: You make some number of "tracks" and then assign "channel strips" to the inputs and output of the tracks. A strip is a chain of equipment. What you have is a simulation of a studio full of equipment and some patch cables. Now that the world seems to be settled of only a few standard interfaces (VST being the prime example) it all (mostly) "just works"

To learn about the new world of recording, Focal Press is a great publisher. macprovidio.com has many great video tutorials

TimR, I didn't mean to add to the confusion by mentioning VSTs since that's not necessarily relevant to getting Tapper to talk to Hauptwerk or Miditzer. We can all agree that there are probably better solutions for working with MIDI data/files and VSTs using a more powerful DAW but if you are going to use specific programs like Tapper and Miditzer, then there are very few options available in order for you to get them to work together.

Tapper and Miditzer are very unique programs that can't be used within a traditional DAW program. Both of these programs are stand-alone executables. Because Tapper can only send MIDI data out and not load a VST instrument and Miditzer cannot be loaded into a DAW as a VST, the only way to get these two programs to work together is with a program like LoopBe1. This is exactly the situation that LoopBe1 was created for whether it's the ideal solution or not.

TimR, make sure that under the "Miditzer Settings" - "Input" you have "LoopBe Internal MIDI" selected as the "Active MIDI input device". You may have to close and then re-open the program for the settings to take effect but as long as Tapper's "midiOut" is set to "LoopBe Internal MIDI" and Miditzer's input is set to the same, everything should work.

At some point in time it may be worth looking into more robust programs that provide this kind of functionality all in one place but if all you want to do for now is to get these two specific programs to work together, I hope this solution works for you.